Am I invisible to you?
by Tug cost
Summary: Every time Max tries to talk to her crush, she ends up making a fool out of herself. Why can't she just be normal around Fang?
1. Chapter 1

"Miss. Ride," Mr. Oswald calls from the front of the class, surprising me. I pick up my head and look at him, my neck stiff from bending over the desk so much.

He holds out an aged hand and wiggles it at me. "Come here."

His deep voice booms out over the silent classroom, and most of the kids in the class glance up from their textbooks at their desks to openly gawk at me as I slowly slide out of my seat and sidle up to his desk. I shoot everyone an icy look, as if to say, _"What the hell are you looking at? Go back to your books and mind your own business." _

There are various papers strewn across Mr. Oswald's desk, pencils, pens, even a couple of photos, most of them containing the smiling face of a pretty middle aged woman with light crimson curls, straight, white teeth and sparkling blue eyes.

Mr. Oswald clears his throat and I snap my attention back to him, a sorry expression on my face. His leathery hand is pushing his graying brown hair away from his wrinkled face, and his chocolate brown eyes are exhausted. He smiles tiredly at me and hands me a thick stack of packets. I glance down at the one on the top of the stack.

"Can you hand these out?" he asks me, his fingers fiddling with a pen. Confused, I nod once, wondering why he asked me, of all people, and turn around to face everybody else.

Slapping a packet on the first desk I come to, I maneuver in and out of the rows, thrusting packets at everyone, ignoring the little soft cries of "heys!" and "don't throw that at me!"

My heart speeds up annoyingly and a goofy, sappy grin that should be illegal spreads across my face as my feet approach the corner of the room where my desk sits. I gently, more gently than I did for the other students, mind you, lay the last packet on the desk in front of me and smile at the boy sitting there. "Here ya go Fang," I mutter, my voice unusually high pitched. I mentally curse myself, curse the way how very un-Max like I get when I like a boy.

He barely even glances at me as he takes the bundle of papers and tucks them in his binder. I just stand there, smiling at him like a dork, barely taking note of the fact that I look like an idiot.

He looks at me finally after a few seconds, his dark eyes guarded. "Um, thanks," he says quietly to me, and then drops his gaze back to his textbook.

I blink stupidly a few times, my face heating up and rush to my desk behind him, burying my head in my arms in mortification.

God, why must I make such a fool of myself around him?

Why couldn't I be normal?

* * *

><p>"Maxie," Jordan purrs, licking his cupcake. Purple frosting is coating his plump upper lip and I laugh as he wipes it away as soon as I tell him. He glances discreetly around the cafeteria to see if anyone was looking and takes a bite out of the cupcake.<p>

"Calm down. No one saw,"I say, grinning. My hand swipes up a French fry from my tray and I push it into my mouth, trying not to grimace. The school lunches are disgusting, yes. But my mom refuses to let me pack my lunch after the time I threw my lunch box at Jimmy Davis in fourth grade.

To be honest, he was a bastard.

I would normally try to snatch something off Jordan's lunch, but since he's a hungry douche who only packs cupcakes, roast beef sandwiches, juice boxes and pretzels, I don't.

"How's Fangie Fang?" he teases me, taking another enormous bite out of his cupcake and leaning forward so that his elbows rest on the table. I regret telling him about my crush on Fang, like I do almost every day, but he's my best and only friend in this hell hole they call a school, so I can't really complain.

I frown at him and blush. "Shut up. Although there was one thing in Math..." I trail off, suddenly uncomfortable. I glance over to his table, where he sits by himself. I observe that he's eating a school lunch, and I watch his hands as he rips his lettuce into shreds, piling it up into a pile on the side of his tray.

And then he looks up and our eyes meet.

I drop my gaze immediately and stare at the table, peeking up at Jordan, who is obviously oblivious to the exchange that had just happened.

"What happened in Math?" Jordan asks me, his face curious.

"Nothing, never mind. Nothing happened." I guess that was kind of true. It was just me swooning over him as usual. He didn't swoon back. So really, _nothing happened._

"Mhm, do you think I should have vanilla or chocolate, Maxie?" he asks me, opening up his paper bag with his name scrawled on there in feminine cursive. He pulls out a carefully decorated vanilla cupcake, and an oozing delicious chocolate one.

I shrug, not caring. His choice of cupcakes doesn't really concern me. At all, actually.

"Criss says hi," Jordan says to me, and I smile. "I miss him though," he adds sadly after a moment, and we sit there in silence.

"When did you talk to him?" I ask him after a minute.

"Last night. He called me and said he wanted to chat," Jordan's face is beaming and sad at the same time. I pat his arm reassuringly and he gives me a tiny smile.

"It's okay, big guy." I forcefully shove another French fry into my mouth.

A huge group of football players pass by. One, I think his name was Dylan or something similar to that, taps the back of Jordan's head rather hardly and says "fag" really loudly to his idiotic frriends. They walk away laughing. Jordan rolls his eyes, like he's used to it. I stare after them with a rather frosty expression on my face.

Yes, Jordan is gay.

No, that doesn't mean anyone should make fun of him.

* * *

><p>"Max!" Ella and her friend, Nudge, come running into my room. I yank my iPod headphones out of my ears and put down the comic book I had been reading. I glare at them, but they ignore it. Ella collapses next to me on my bed.<p>

"Take us to the mall!" they chant. Nudge is jumping up and down excitedly and Ella is bouncing up and down on my bed.

"No," I say firmly. The mall wasn't my favorite place in the world. Right next to Pete's Lobster Shack-the place where couples hang out and are stuck together like glue. Literally. You cannot go to the bathroom without finding some couple making out against the wall. It's frankly disgusting.

"Please Max? Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, _please? _I really need to get that sweater that's on sale at Justice. Pleaseeeeee. You'll be my favorite sister forever," Ella pleads.

I stare at her. "I'm your only sister!" I exclaim, throwing my hands up in the air.

She looks down. "Oh yeah. Never mind. Just plllleeeeaaaaseeee?" She pleads again. Seeing my stubborn expression, she elbows Nudge in the stomach and they both whip out the Bambi eyes.

I sigh. "Fine. But only for three hours. _Three hours only," _I strain to say over their delighted squeals. I sigh and run my fingers through my hair and down my face.

"Yay!" Nudge squeals.

"We're gonna go get ready. Meet us by the car in fifteen minutes, okay Max?" Without stopping to hear my answer, they skip out the door and rush to their rooms.

"Whatever," I mutter to myself.


	2. Chapter 2

Basically, nothing is mine.

Except the plot. And maybe Clarisse and Marta.

And some other stuff I guess.

~Ryro

* * *

><p>"Don't take too long! Okay, guys? I'll meet you at the food court later!" I call out to Nudge and Ella as they parade away from me. They barely even wave over their shoulders at me, before disappearing around the corner, both of them bent over each other and squealing hard like pigs. I shrug, not caring. They'd already told me they're heading over to look at skirts and sweaters in Justice. I trust them. Besides, all I care about is the food.<p>

I take out my iPod and put the ear buds in my ears and blast My Chemical Romance rather loudly. I scowl darkly as a sappy couple strolls by, hand in hand with ice cream dribbling down their chins, happy and lovesick smiles plastered on their faces. I don't know what it is about those kind of couples, but they make me angry. Really, _really_ angry.

I wander around for fifteen minutes and then come to a stop outside Hot Topic, debating whether to go inside or not. My mom absolutely doesn't like-no, forgive me. _Hates-_Hot Topic, and doesn't want me shopping there, claiming that it will "mess with my mind" and "make me become a lost, hopeless soul." Mother, _please._

As I'm pondering this, someone hesitantly and lightly taps my shoulder and I turn around instantly, curiosity on my face. My heart stops beating and my face mirrors the faces of the couple I had just seen strolling by.

"Hey," I shakily squeak to Fang, ripping the buds out of my ears. He smiles at me and I smile back, maybe a little bit too widely, showing quite a bit of teeth, making me look like I'm trying to eat him or something.

It's ridiculous and almost embarrassing how weird I get around him.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him, fiddling with them hem of my t-shirt. I'm quite aware that I look ridiculous. And I don't need reminders, thank you very much.

He looks amused and his eyes are lighter than usual. "My sister heard about the sale at Justice. So I got "elected" to drive her and her friend, Jasmine, here today," he says, acting out quotation marks with his fingers on the word elected. He sees my expression and laughs, throwing his head back, and I practically melt inside. His laughter is like music to my ears. Really sexy music, I mean. "By elected, I mean forced. By my parents. And the two devils back there." He jabs his thumb vaguely in the direction of Justice without taking his eyes off of me.

I grin shyly. "Same. My sister, Ella and her friend, Nudge had to drag me to get me to take them. The only thing I got out of it was a trip to the food court, since my sisters think it's "fattening" and "unhealthy" to eat there, cookies on the way back and only three hours spent here," I explain to him. I start to mull over the fact that I'm talking too much, starting to bore him. After all, why would someone like, like, like _him _be interested in the daily life of someone like _me?_

Despite my worries, he laughs again and I just about dissolve into a puddle of goo at his feet. "Nice. We have a lot in common, actually. Have you met my brother Iggy?" The name bounces around emptily in my brain, and I don't recognize it. I blink a few times, and my smile kind of fades a bit.

_"Who?" _I ask him, drawing up a blank.

"My brother. Iggy," he says, looking at me weirdly, like I'm crazy. "Didn't I say that?"

"Oh, yeah," I mumble, my cheeks turning tomato red. We had gone from having a good time and talking about our weirdo sisters, to getting weird over practically nothing. Oh, my life. And it had happened in the space of, oh, two minutes? Three?

We stand there for a moment in awkward silence. People walk past us, some chatting and some just strolling along, with their hands in their pockets and iPods on full blast in their ears, like I had been, a few minutes ago.

"So um-" Fang begins finally, but he's interrupted by four loud squeals of glee, that sound very, _very _familiar.

We both turn to see Nudge, Ella and two girls running toward us, all of them carrying five plus bags with the word "Justice" on them. I smile weakly and give them a wave.

"How much did that cost?" I ask them sternly, as they approach. Their faces are delighted and red and Nudge is out of breath, but still squealing. I notice that the other two girls are standing next to Fang and they too are talking. One has the curliest black hair I have ever seen and the other has very straight, very pale blonde hair.

I smile privately to myself.

Ella and Nudge suddenly look very guilty and sad. Ella drops one of her bags and shuffles her small feet on the ground a little bit, looking down into her cupped hands. Nudge is mirroring her same position, and I take pity on the poor girls.

"Oh whatever. I don't care. Let's just go have something to eat and go home," I tell them, laughing and reaching out and ruffling their hair like they're in second grade. They smile at me and let out a tremendous burst of joy that just about destroys my ears.

I smile at them widely before turning to Fang and catching him watching us. He smiles back at me. "We're just gonna go head over to the food court, okay? I'll see you at school tomorrow Fang," I tell him, my face feeling like it's about to split open from too much smiling.

"Oh Max!" Nudge says suddenly, taking my hand and pulling me over to the girls next to Fang. "This is Clarisse and her best friend, Marta," she says, pointing at the black haired one first, and then the pale blonde one. "We met them at Justice. They said Clarisse's older brother is Fang, and we know you know him, so we became friends!" Nudge said in a rush. I put my free hand up to my temple and rub it. Sometimes Nudge's non stop chatter gives me a headache, which is, oh wait, _all the freaking time. _

I smile weakly at her. "That's great Nudge. And hi Clarisse," I say to Nudge's black haired sister. She smiles at me and shakes her Justice bag at me a little. "And hi Marta," I add to the pale blonde. She smiles at me also.

My stomach grumbles and I laugh nervously. "We better get going. Bye." I take Nudge and Ella by the hands and practically pull them towards the food court on the opposite side of the escalators. I wave over my shoulder at Fang and the girls, and then urge Ella and Nudge to move faster. They laugh.

"What's the rush Max? The food isn't gonna run away. Calm down. We'll be there soon," Ella giggles, freeing herself from my grip. She straightens her skirt and runs her tongue along her teeth.

I grab her by her sleeve. "That's what you think," I mutter darkly to her as my stomach grumbles again. I push past them and walk quicker, almost running into a girl walking with her boyfriend. She shoots me a dark look as I mumble a gruff "sorry." I look over my shoulder at them and mouth "hurry up."

The only answer I get is two sets of high, girlish laughs that I can hear above the roar of the other people in the mall and two pairs of tiny, dainty heels clicking on the mall floor as they rush to keep up.


End file.
